The inmates at Frankland as Ian Huntley 'fights for life' after attack

Who is locked up at 'Monster Mansion' HMP Frankland? <i>(Image: STUART BOULTON / POLICE)</i>
Who is locked up at 'Monster Mansion' HMP Frankland? (Image: STUART BOULTON / POLICE)
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It is home to some of Britain's most vile criminals.

Terrorists, child killers, and murderers are just some of the notorious inmates that call HMP Frankland, in Brasside, home.

Its reputation for housing some of the country's most dangerous prisoners has given it the name 'Monster Mansion', with everyone from Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe to doctor turned serial killer Harold Shipman once residing in the cells.

And the maximum security jail has been under the spotlight this week after Soham killer Ian Huntley was attacked in a workshop on Thursday (February 26) morning.

The Sun, which first reported the attack, said the killer was knocked unconscious with a metal pole and quoted a source saying his condition was “touch and go”.

Huntley was treated for head injuries and remains in a serious condition in hospital - while a prisoner in his mid-40s has been identified as a suspect in the attack, police said.

HMP Frankland (Image: Stuart Boulton)

While many of its infamous inmates may have come and gone, the Category A prison still protects the public from some of the country's worst offenders.

Here is a list of just some of the renowned people serving their sentence at HMP Frankland.

Michael Adebolajo 

Michael Adebolajo

Terrorist killer Michael Adebolajo is one of two people who was convicted of the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby on the streets of South East London in May 2013. 

Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale ran Fusilier Rigby down in a car and hacked him to death with a meat cleaver and knives in front of horrified onlookers.

Rigby - who was a drummer for the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and served in Afghanistan - was just 25-years-old at the time of the attack in Woolwich. 

Adebolajo was handed a whole-life term, meaning he will die in prison. 

Levi Bellfield

Levi Bellfield

Levi Bellfield is currently serving two whole life orders for the murders of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell, and French student Amelie Delagrange.

He was given a whole life term for murdering Ms McDonnell, 19, in 2003, and murdering Ms Delagrange, 22, and attempting to murder Kate Sheedy, 18, in 2004.

He was already serving this sentence when he went on trial for killing schoolgirl Milly, who was snatched from the street walking from school to her home in Surrey in March 2002.

Bellfield was found guilty of abducting and killing the 13-year-old following a trial at the Old Bailey in 2011.

Wayne Couzens

Wayne Couzens

Former armed Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard, 33, in March 2021 as part of a fake ‘Covid patrol’. 

He had used his status as a police officer to trick Ms Everard, who was a Durham University graduate, into thinking he could arrest her for breaking lockdown rules, as she walked home from a friend’s house in south London.

It was understood that Couzens was switched from Belmarsh to the Durham prison in 2021. 

He is currently serving a whole-life term.

Ian Huntley

Soham murderer Ian Huntley

Soham child killer Ian Huntley, who worked as a school caretaker, murdered 10-year-old school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.

The two girls had set out on a trip to the town when they went missing, and the area rallied together in a desperate effort to find them. 

Huntley claimed to have seen Jessica and Holly on his doorstep and mentioned that they appeared happy during their brief interaction, and even became an informal spokesperson for the town, regularly checking in with police on the investigation. 

Two weeks after Holly and Jessica went missing on August 17, their bodies were found in a ditch near the perimeter fence of RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

Huntley was connected to their deaths after police found fibres of clothing the girls had last been wearing when they were seen. 

He was eventually found guilty on two counts of murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years.

Thomas Mair

Thomas Mair (Image: UNKNOWN)

Neo-Nazi Thomas Mair gunned down Labour MP Jo Cox while shouting "Britain first" during the horrific attack in June 2016. 

He murdered the mother-of-two as she arrived for a constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire, a week before the EU referendum.

At his seven-day trial at the Old Bailey, evidence revealed Mair admired Nazis and similar anti-democratic white supremacist groups.

The court heard that when he carried out the attack on Mrs Cox - who was a Remain campaigner - he reportedly shouted slogans such as “keep Britain independent”. 

Mair is also serving a whole-life order.

Urfan Sharif

Urfan Sharif who was jailed for life with minimum a term of 40 years (Image: Surrey Police/PA Wire)

Urfan Sharif was jailed for life with minimum terms of 40 years last year after being found guilty of the murder of his daughter Sara Sharif.

Her stepmother Beinash Batool was also jailed for 33 years for her murder while her uncle Faisal Malik was jailed for 16 years after being found guilty of causing or allowing her death. 

The ten-year-old was found dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, in August 2023, having suffered 71 “fresh” injuries, including 25 broken bones, iron burns on her bottom, scalding marks to her feet, and human bites.

Within hours of Sara’s death, Sharif and Batool had booked flights to Pakistan for the whole family, including her siblings.

The defendants returned to the UK on September 13, 2023, leaving the children behind, and were detained within minutes of a flight touching down at Gatwick airport.

In a televised sentencing at the Old Bailey in December, Mr Justice Cavanagh said Sara’s death “was the culmination of years of neglect, frequent assaults and what can only be described as torture”, mainly at the hands of Sharif.

It was reported that Sharif had been moved to HMP Frankland in January this year.

Daniel Khalife

Daniel Khalife (Image: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)

Daniel Khalife was jailed for 14 years and three months after spying for Iran and escaping from prison earlier this year. 

Khalife, originally from Kingston, south-west London, was serving in the British Army when he “exposed military personnel to serious harm” by collecting sensitive information and passing it to agents of the Middle Eastern country.

In September 2023, Khalife escaped from category B prison HMP Wandsworth, in south-west London, by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck.

He was caught on a canal towpath by a plainclothes detective days later in a major policing operation that cost £250,000.

Khalife was sentenced to six years for committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state, and another six years – consisting of five years in prison and one on licence – for eliciting information about members of the armed forces.

He was jailed for two years and three months for the jailbreak.

It was reported that Khalife was moved to the Durham prison in March. 

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